EFI Teams With Starwood To Enable Guest Printing

Friday, April 22, 2005

Press release from the issuing company

April 21, 2005 -- EFI and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide have announced the availability of EFI PrintMe mobile and Internet printing solution at Starwood properties through a global licensing agreement between the two companies. With PrintMe, Starwood guests can easily print from any mobile device, such as laptops, BlackBerry, palmOne Treo, PDAs, camera phones, and smart phones, to any PrintMe-enabled printer.
With more than 750 properties and more than 230,000 rooms in 82 countries, Starwood currently owns, manages and franchises hotels and resorts under the St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Sheraton, Westin, W, and Four Points by Sheraton brands. Starwood has rolled out PrintMe to100 hotels in North America and both the hotel operators and guests have enthusiastically embraced this easy to use and maintain printing solution.
With the proliferation of high-speed Internet access at hotels, mobile professionals continue to identify printing as the most difficult task to complete while on business travel. PrintMe ends this frustration by enabling guests to easily print to any hotel printer via any Internet-enabled device. The hotel room quickly becomes a true "mobile office" and guests do not need additional software, driver downloads, or IT support to use PrintMe.
To use the secure, global PrintMe system, Starwood guests simply connect to the high-speed network at the hotel where they are automatically presented with Starwood's in-room portal, which includes information and links to PrintMe. Guests then simply upload their documents through the PrintMe web page. Printed documents are delivered to guest rooms, or held for printing until the guest personally retrieves it using a secure DocID number.
"With Starwood's aggressive growth schedule, the company's choice of EFI PrintMe is testament to both the strength of our solution and the simplicity of its installation," says Frank Mallozzi, EFI vice president of worldwide sales and marketing. "We look forward to bringing EFI's innovative PrintMe mobile printing solution to their growing number of guests, allowing them to readily print documents from a Starwood hotel room, anytime and practically anywhere in the world."